Metroid V: Revenge of the Queen
by MetroidJack
Summary: Samus Aran faces life imprisonment after the events of Metroid Fusion, but her term is interupted by an old foe and an even more alarming terror. (my first fanfic, review please)
1. The Escape

Authors Notes: This is my first fanfiction, so please be gentle :-) I've always been a huge fan of Metroid and the Metroid universe, so when I came up with this idea, I had to post it here. I'll add more chapters if this is any interest to anyone else, but if it's not, then I'll just keep it to myself. Review if you want to give me some advice. I'd like to hear your two cents!  
  
  
  
Omega Metroid had been destroyed, and with her, the Metroid homeworld of SR388. As all life on the planet was wiped off the face of the galaxy, I knew the mission was finally over. When I took up this mission years ago on Planet Zebes, it was a much needed bounty. Now, though, the mission had become an internal struggle within myself - and now that struggle is dead and buried. But after I destroyed the B.S.L. station, defying specific orders from Gallactic Federation, I needed to turn in my last criminal for bounty - myself.   
  
As I faced the Gallactic Court System deliberation panal (a assembly politicians and bureaucrats), I resisted bashing their heads together as I told them my situation over and over again - I did what I did to protect civilization from destruction from the Metroid.  
  
In their infinite obstinance, they concieved me as a gallactic terrorist. It became apparent to me that Adam was wrong - there was no understanding for my actions. They told me I was a criminal that only knew destruction of whole planets as a means of protecting the universe - which was only half true. But, with the main pirate infastructures destroyed by myself and intergallactic trade no longer being a dangerously stupid idea, I was a no longer needed relic of the past. In the ultimate insult to my credibility and dedication towards the gallactic federation, I was sentanced to life imprisonment at Aitos space station, a maximum security prison orbiting the Tabula moon of Aitos. There, I was to spend the remainder of my years surrounded by hostile space pirates and other enemies I had captured for Gallactic civilization.  
  
My ship was impounded within Aitos space station with the remainder of my belongings, including my space suit. I was able to keep the basics of my suit until a uniform could arrive with my issued number, due to my lack of other clothing - but I was put in the most secure sector of the prison until that uniform was to arrive. I was feeling more and more betrayed by the tempering scientists I helped protect from destruction.  
  
But as I sat there, I could feel a small rumbling beneath my feet. The rumbling was getting more and more intense, then, suddenly, a large blast dissintegrated the security locks that had contained me. I walked out to find a huge suprise - their was a mutiny aboard the prison station and the prisoners had taken control of the ship! As I walked out, I looked up the fifteen story containment center, with balconies that wrapped around each floor near cage doors, and I saw pirates of all kinds rampaging the complex and hacking their way through the bars that contained their brothers in crime!  
  
I tried to save some of the innocent - the security guards, the maintenence crew - but my suit was stripped of most weapons systems necessary to duel with the pirates.  
  
I knew my ship was impounded within sector 14, a docking bay for impounded vessels used by criminals. I needed to get to my spaceship to warn gallactic civilization of the upcoming terror they were to face.   
  
But as I carefully plotted out my plan, a loud explosion rang the complex as crackling bits of bendezium-enforced cordite clattered onto my suit. My find as I looked up was astonishing - Ridley! Ridley had destroyed the roof of the complex and is now loading his pirates onto the Pirate Enterprise! As Ridley looked down upon my body covered in debries from the explosion, I realized that this was a planned hijack. He was after me - he wanted revenge. But as we exchanged cold stares that refueled our rivalry, he suddenly turned away. And as the pirates loaded themselves onto the Enterprise, climbing chains and wires, I realized something - he wasn't the same Ridley. He didn't look like himself - in fact, he didn't even look organic. He had a curious metallic shine glinting his head. But, I quickly turned away and realized that I had to fight him - weapon systems or not.  
  
As he soared across the complex destroying various security systems and plundering weapons from the guards, I began shooting several weak power beam shots at his face - only to have them deflected off and knock me off my feet. He had a deflector shield, and as rage overcame me, he gave me that snide cackle - that laugh that I hated. And as I lay there, my aggrivation growing, he began to soar towards my general area - floor level 3. As I desperately shot at him, I realized his agility was too much for me. He had flown down to my level faster than ever before, and plunged his sharp tail into my chest.  
  
Despite being in the confines of my power suit, I knew it had penetrated the armor, and I slowly felt more and more weak. As I struggled to free myself from under his sharp tail, he began to fly upwards - with me still impaled onto his tail - suspending me further and further up. And as he reached the top of the complex, where the loading bay of the enterprise was, he sharply threw me down with his tail - spiking me fifteen stories to the ground below. As I fell, I could hear that menacing laughter of joy as he loaded himself onto the Enterprise. It was then when I hit the cold metal ground, and was sent into unconciousness.  
  
Blurry and hazy, I had awakened from near death confused of where I was and what I was doing. Weary, I shook myself of rubble and debries and realized I had survived the plummet. But I soon realized that though the pirates had left, the battle wasn't over yet. The breakout must have engaged the self-destruct mechanism - and as I recovered the sound systems with my helmet, I realized that alarms were sounding. Frantically, I raced to sector 14. I had to get out of there.   
  
"Fifteen minutes until detination", sounded the monotone computer voice over the prison intercom. Yet again I was faced with a imploding space station - it had almost become a regular thing by now.  
  
As I ran down the narrow corridors, I realized that the pirates had knocked the whole space station out of orbit and into an asteroid field - to make it appear as an accident. Communications were knocked out prior to the attack so the security personel couldn't warn them of the upcoming danger. It was all too clear - gallactic civilization would assume that the pirates had all died in the explosion. They would also assume that I, myself, would have died in the explosion.   
  
When I reached sector 14's entrance, it was completely blocked by rubble. Just as I thought I was to die on the prison as Ridley wanted, a terminal nearby suddenly activated. I walked over to it curiously only to notice that it was an old friend.  
  
"Lady, you need to get to subsection 8 and get your ball mode - it was one of the few things Ridley failed to plunder! Using the ball mode, you must roll through the air ducts which lead to sector 14! Any objections, lady?"  
  
He proceded to give me the map layouts to the air duct system of Aitos prison, which I quickly uploaded. And without a further word, I was off. I searched the complex, and found subsection 8. Only it was guarded by a foe of mine left behind - a Phazon-enfused pirate! It seems as if the pirates have been tampering with Phazon programs again. As he cascaded electro-waves across the floor using his weapons systems, I quickly realized my beam shot wasn't going to administer the slightest dent to this monster.  
  
I dodged his initial attacks, and I erroneously tried harder and harder to obtain ball mode which was sitting in the middle of the room, on a pedistal, glowing ominously. At each attempt to avoid the super pirate, I was thwarted with a swift backhand across my helmet. As I fell to the ground, he tried to stomp on me, crushing me into the floor. I quickly rolled out of harms way and got up to my feet. It became apparent that I needed to destroy him, or at least stall him temporarily.  
  
As I scanned the room, I saw a containment of metal barrels of what appeared to be black matter fuel for the ships gravity conducters. I locked on to the small containment fence blocking the barrels, and just when the Phazon Elite was ready to launch another powerful electro-wave, I shot the fence, tumbling piles of extremely heavy barrels onto the pirate, burying him. As his roars of disapproval gained less and less volume, I realized he was stunned but only temporarily.  
  
Taking my oppertunity, I grabbed the ball mode augmentation, quickly tested the system out, and approved it for an add-on to my suit. I went into ball mode and rolled into the nearest air ducts - as I rolled, I could hear the computerized voice, "Three minute until self-destruction", echoing through the chasms. I was running out of time.  
  
I finally busted out of the air duct, and was inside sector 14. Glancing around nervously, I looked for my ship. Then, I saw it at the very end of the docking bay. As I ran closer and closer towards it, I began hearing a roaring noise - a roaring noise that got progressively louder and louder. Then, explosion interupted my run to freedom, and casted me to the metal floor. As I looked up from the fire and debries, I saw the Phazon Elite - the same pirate that tried to kill me before! He was visibly injured - covered in black matter - and also very visibly angered, as he threw his large arms wildly in my direction. Froth foamed from his mouth as he threw chunks of heavy rock at my ship. A larger rock nailed the front wing of the ship, which did visible and internal damage to the ship.  
  
I had enough of this pirate - I charged towards my ship and was beamed up into the pilots seat by Adam. I turned my ship to face the Phazon elite. As I gave the pest one last disgusted look, I began to turn on the ships laser systems.  
  
"Lady, vaporize this scum!"  
  
And with Adam's approval, I unloaded everything I had on that Phazon elite - blowing his face into something resembling a pile of radioactive liquid material.  
  
Without further delay, I turned the ship around and blasted open the containment doors. With the vacuum of space sucking the ship out of the prison, we heard the final countdown.  
  
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."  
  
The explosion barely skimmed the ship, which made me realized that I had once again narrowly escaped death. The rubble floating in the absense of space is all that remains of the prison - and now I was free. Along with some of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy. Now the question was, what should I do now? I was dead to the Gallactic Federation, but should I still turn myself in again to warn the Federation of the upcoming danger? It was times like this I was glad I had Adam. But before I could even begin speaking, Adam interupted my thoughts.  
  
"I've turned off most of the systems, including the hyperdrive. There's been some severe damage to the interior of the ship - I'll work on getting the systems needed for survival working as soon as possible. Also, this is to avoid detection from Federation ships who think your dead. We wouldn't want to be caught in our escape, would we, lady?"  
  
I was shocked at what he said. It seemed like a statement that would be made by a cowardly federation computer.  
  
"Caught in our escape? Adam, several ex-pirates escaped with us and that Phazon Elite we met up with gives me the indication of another Phazon operation! The galaxy is in danger, and your worrying about us-"  
  
"Lady, I realize that. Which is all the more reason we shouldn't risk being caught. The federation does not understand - and they stand no chance if we turn ourselves in."  
  
Adam was making sense, as usual. But it still left me with questions.  
  
"So, what are we suppost to do now? Drift in the void of space?" I inquired, with a little bit of frustration.  
  
"I managed to track the coordinates of the Pirate Enterprise. The trace readings indicate that they are heading towards an abandoned moon of SR388 known as 'Forsythe'. Though the moon appeared to have been launched dramatically out of orbit by the explosion of the Metroid homeworld, it has picked up a new orbiting pattern around Tallon IV, the ruined land of the Chozo. The land readings from previous records show that it's a barren wasteland - with nothing but large craters and tundra coating the surface. What the pirates hope to gain from this planet is unknown, but we must investigate."  
  
"So, what then? What do you think their up to?"  
  
"Well, the heavy amounts of Phazon in that super pirate was an indication that they might be mining Phazon from Tallon IV again and using it to enhance their warriors. What's more alarming, though, is... Ridley."  
  
"What about Ridley? I noticed something strange about him. Almost like he was... a machine. But that's not possible, no machine could fight like Ridley could, and what attacked me at the prison was definitely Ridley."  
  
"Don't be so sure, lady."  
  
Adam's tone was worrying me slightly.  
  
"What do you mean?", I inquired.  
  
"There's more, lady. The Ridley you saw wasn't Ridley. You know how great minds can be uploaded onto a computer for future use?"  
  
Adam didn't need to say any more. I knew - the pirates had managed to upload Ridley's brain into a new heartless mechanical form of himself, only enhanced in every possible way. Ridley, one of the most brilliant masterminds of the Space Pirates, had now achieved physical immortality.  
  
"You've destroyed Ridley's physical form, lady. But we must finish him off. We must go to Forsythe and finish off Ridley's mind. Without Ridley, the space pirates will crumble. You must finally finish your mission. Any objections, lady?"  
  
I had objections. Extreme objections. In fact, I thought it was suicide. But, what I had was a grudge. A grudge for Ridley and his goons. I might die, but I was determined I was going to bring them down with me. Because I had no more reason to live - my reputation had been tainted. While I know I did the right thing at B.S.L., I had now created this Forsythe incident, and it was my obligation to correct it. 


	2. Landing on Forsythe

The journey to Forsythe was a suprisingly pleasent one. Though I was a little fed up with the length of the trip, taking nearly three standard days, Adam felt it was necessary that we take the back routes to Forsythe to avoid Gallactic Federation and Space Pirate detection. I was put into an unconcious state for most of the trip, feeding off the ships battery to regain the limited energy that had remained in my suit after the Ridley attack. When I awoke, I was greeted with a screen on my radar that showed that the ship was within 4.5 parsecs away from entering the Tallon system.  
  
I read through Gallactic Federation reports of Forsythe. It was first explored by Chozo scientists, where a research center was located on the surface of the planet. Though the reports didn't say what this center researched, it did say that all activity discontinued when the Chozo abandoned their science program and took up their pursuit of happiness at Tallon IV. Perhaps this space station was rebuilt and now under control of space pirates.  
  
Other than the Chozo, Forsythe had been completely barron of life. As Adam had mentioned, it was mainly tundra land and frozen ice patches. There was nothing of particular interest on the moon.  
  
But as my spaceship neared the planet of Tallon IV, Forsythe became visible to the human eye. As I looked through the front visor of the ship, I noticed Forsythe's hue was not as discolored as it had been in the old images I saw on the ships research monitor. It wasn't a white planet with grey gases smoldering over the planets stratosphere as it once had been. It was blue, with dots of jungles and mountains swirled into the mix, and light green clouds instead of grey gases coated the stratosphere.  
  
As the ship struggled to close in on Forsythe due to it's unusual orbiting patterns, I began to notice that something was definitely not right about this new moon.  
  
"Adam," I muttered, "are you sure we have the right moon here?"  
  
It was a stupid question, but Adam was as perplexed as I was.  
  
"Lady, you should know more than anybody that Tallon IV doesn't have any moons. Still, this is definitely unusual. Scans indicate that this moon has exactly the same circumference as Forsythe had orbiting SR388, which the odds of a new moon appearing out of nowhere that resembles Forsythe in every measurement is nearly an impossibility. Also, there are large amounts of subterraneous activity being detected by the ship's lifeform detection systems. And if I know my space pirates, lady, Forsythe or not, this is where the pirates are operating."  
  
As the dense lifeform readings Adam found in his scans loaded onto the research monitor, he was right - the dense glow of life farther into the interior of the planet and nearly no life above ground was a red flag.   
  
"So, when will we be landing?" I asked Adam.  
  
"We're being drawn in by the gravitational pull right now. Any preference, lady?"  
  
"I was reading something about an old Chozo research station. That would be a good place to start. Maybe I could get some augmentations for my suit there that the Chozo left behind. Is there anything like that on the planet still?"  
  
"ChozoTech Research. Located in one of the northern-most points of the moon's northern hempisphere. There appears to be several attempts made to gain access to this station, according to the security logs. Probably attempts made by the pirates."  
  
"There's something of importance in there. Is there anyway we could get in?"  
  
"You should be able to land on the roof of the complex, on the emergency landing platform. There's an elevator shaft that leads inside. Your suit should already be equipped with most of the Chozo security codes necessary to open the doors."  
  
"Alright, Adam. Put in the coordinates of ChozoTech Research and prepare for landing."  
  
As I released the throttle, it began to move by itself, indicating that Adam had taken over the ships controls. As I sat back and looked on the planet through the ship's front visor, flying closer and closer to the surface, I noticed something extremely alarming.  
  
The ship was now cruising fairly low to the ground, and I looked out through my ship's front visor to see large canyons and mountainous terrain passing below me at rapid speed. Huge lakes would often break the pattern of canyons and mountains, but as the ship progressed farther and farther north, glaciers and snow capped mountains filled the landscape. This was nothing like the pictures of Forsythe's environment I saw on the research screen. This was too eerily like... like...  
  
"Welcome to SR388, lady." Adam exclaimed wearily, breaking the inept silence that fell over the cockpit.  
  
"What... in... the..." which was all I managed to say out of all the thoughts I was recieving.  
  
"I'm... not really sure what's going on either. I'll investigate, lady. But for now, I need you to find out every bit of information you can about this planet from ChozoTech Research. Also keep an eye out for needed energy tanks and suit modifications."  
  
At that moment, the ship came to an abrupt halt, causing me to hit the navicom dashboard of my ship.  
  
"Sorry about that, lady. If you let me fly more often I would be a little bit better at this!" Adam exclaimed mockingly.  
  
"Fat chance, Malkovich," I retorted. At that moment, I felt the landing systems kick in, and looked out to see that I was landing atop fractured rooftop of ChozoTech.  
  
"Well, here we are. Get in there. I'll be waiting here. Any objections, lady?"  
  
Adam tested our trust once more with that old cliche that was now a tradition.  
  
"No, Adam. Take care." 


	3. Paranoia

Writers Note: Sorry for the long pause in updating. I just couldn't bring myself to write what could be considered the "boring" chapter. I'm bad at description, but I guess that's why I write here. Everytime I started, I just felt as if it was wrong, I was doing something wrong or making it sound too light. But I finally got around to writing something I largely agree with. This might be considered a little boring, I don't know, but it heats up towards the end as I develop a new conflict - Samus, over her place in life. Enjoy!  
  
---  
  
As I entered the research lab, my eyes were greeted to an image of surreal technological dominance. After arriving off the elevator platform that resembled the mine shaft elevators on Planet Zebes, I was awestruck at how magnificant the inside the facility was. It was a contrast that rivaled the constrast of white and black. The outside was a faded, crumbling building which looked a millenium in age. Yet the inside was full of equipment that rivaled even todays technological achievements. It didn't resemble Chozo architecture at all. It was cold, mechanical, stark. Then it hit me. It reminded me of the Space Pirates.  
  
The rickety old gravitational elevator I managed to hotwire lowered me into a small elevator lobby, with plain white walls which seemed to stretch all the way to the heavens, and blue marble floor which glowed red with warmth with every step. Although the site itself was very dull and plain, from the very beginning, the facility presented to me an image of superiority and greatness, as if the room I was about to enter was of significant importance. Although looking nothing like the great sculptures and wonderous pieces of art I found to embody Chozo architecture on Tallon IV, in it's humble design, it commanded respect.  
  
The blue-security door lit up as I approached it, and when I fired a blast with my arm canon to deactivate it, I was greeted with a long hallway, with pipes alligning the walls and lights embedded on the ceiling lighting my path. At that point, I knew I had found my way to the utilities sector of the facility, which almost certainly had to carry some sort of communication equipment to allow contact to the outside world.   
  
I walked down the long tunnels of pipes carrying black matter to the reactor core powering the facility, carefully analyzed each section in hopes of finding something that could gain Adam access to the entire network of this facility. I soon learned how the facility was set up - after about every five hundredyards of tunnels and pathways, there was a security station which supervised that sector of piping. Each security station was exactly the same in appearence - with several computers built into the walls asking for a prompt which required red-level security access in order to access the network. With my arm canon only equipped with blue-level security access, these stations served no purpose for me as I couldn't use them. After walking through an entire labyrinth of matching hallways and matching security stations, I finally reached the reactor core - which, just like the large piping fixtures, laid dormant for at least an entire millenium.  
  
The room itself where the reactor rested was massive, with a ceiling that seemed to stretch to the heavens. I had arrived on the 1st floor South entrance of a massive five-story room with four entrances (North, South, East, West) on each floor. Each level had it's own catwalk that encircled the reactor, a large metal rod with a small bulb at the end of it.   
  
I walked through the door, glancing back and forth across several instruments sued to maintain the reactor. Then I saw what I needed - the communications terminal - but the doors were sealed and were unable to be opened without power. The facility had been running off of the backup batteries for all this time and had shut down all non-essential systems in order to preserve the batteries. I needed to be able to power up the reactor and get it to deliver power to that building again. The only problem was that I had no idea how to turn on a nuclear reactor - the very task seemed like it was time consuming and needed a lot of technical know-how. I mean, how the hell does one just turn on a nuclear reactor? Just flip a switch from on to off? That was the limit of my degree in nuclear physics. I knew that Adam most likely knew how to get the nuclear reactor working again, but his help was beyond me now. As I looked at the towering reactor resembling a giant missile, and all of the various pipes which leached itself to the base of it, I just let out a small sigh and wondered how the hell I was going to get a complicated, supermassive reactor core operational when I failed my chemistry class in high school.  
  
But then I saw another small computer station nearest the reactor core, the monitor glowing with life with a blinking green line that was just asking me to type something. So, out of curiousity, I approached the monitor and looked down to type something. I hit one key, which deactivated the safe mode, and it gave me one simple question - "Reactivate reactor core? y/n". After staring in slight disbelief for awhile, I clicked the "y" key. And with that, the pipes I had seen alligning the hallway began pulsing with black matter, delivering it to the reactor for processing into energy. As the humming of electricity being processed became louder and louder, soon I began seeing all of the various monitors and computer systems flicker with life, along with several overhead lights. I was amazed at how idiot-proof a nuclear reactor could be.  
  
I walked to the communications terminal NaviCom and began to type in the ship ID to link Adam to the network.   
  
"Connection Established. Uploading information..."  
  
The NaviCom was able to connect directly with Adam back at the ship, and Adam began the massive task of searching through the massive network at ChozoTech Research in order to find important information about the facilities objectives.  
  
"Upload complete."  
  
Soon after the upload was finished, Adam made contact...  
  
"I have some good news, some bad news and some worse news, lady. Should I start with the good news?"   
  
Damn it, why does there always have to be bad news?  
  
"I guess..." I muttered back.  
  
"Good news - after accessing the site logs, I was able to find out that this facilities prior use was for weapons development, which means there are plenty of old weapons and barely used prototype weapons that can be applied to function in coordination with your Space Suit within the facility. And I've managed to gain us access to a map station which will lead you out of the utilities room."  
  
"Uh, that's good." I replied, a little nervous of what remained to be said. "What's the bad news?"  
  
"Well, uh... the bad news is the pirates have gained access and are looting the facility as we speak. And I have no idea where they managed to gain access, so watch your back."  
  
"Well, I have no idea where I managed to gain access either. What's the 'worse' news, Adam?"  
  
"Ummmm. This facility was known for it's, uh... rather liberal use of animal weapons testing, especially dangerous specimens from SR-388. I was able to find out that this planet was an exact replica of SR-388 before it entered an ice age when it had changed its orbiting pattern and only saw three days of light a year. The animal life on SR-388 seized to exist, and froze over into the ages. The planet hosted the same animal life as SR-388. Knowing this, the Chozo searched for prehistoric life. They were able to find a specimen with the ability to literally suck energy from it's enemies and harnest it to use against them. Reports call this specimen 'the most powerful creature yet to be encountered in the universe'. They used a method of freezing the specimen in order to subdue it, and developed weapons specifically focused on freezing this specimen and trying to harness it's potential threat to society. The lab reports end suddenly after one report that discussed cleaning the inside of the shielded holding biome. Further analysis suggests that the distress alarms were activated, thereby shutting off all power to the facility, but most likely, there was no attempt to rescue the ChozoTech crew. I've come to only one conclusion to what this species may be..."  
  
I very well knew what it was. Adam knew I knew as well. It was the Metroid. The Metroid race back from hell. And this time I understood who my enemies were. The entire universe. The Pirates, the Federation, the Metroid themselves - it was the feeling of paranoia I had never felt before.  
  
"... the Metroid is back, lady."  
  
"Well, no shit Adam." I shouted, angrily. "I can't believe how close we got to killing this thing. I really can't believe it. And now it's back due to this stupid technicality. I blew up SR-388 only to unfreeze an even more menacing Metroid race! The painful irony of my mission just never ends, I'll fight my whole life to wipe this thing out! And even then it'll still emerge, thriving in the corner of the universe where nobody else thought of looking. I'll fight everyone to do it, too! I'll fight Ridley, I'll fight the government, and I'll fight a million more of those slimy, disgusting, dangerous, repulsive creatures whom everyone wishes to manipulate to do their bidding. What's the point, Adam? Huh? Can't I enjoy freedom for once? I'm a woman trapped in a prison, a suit, forever fight for values that no longer mean anything to anybody else.   
  
"Lady, I-"  
  
"No, Adam!" I interupted, unwilling to hear Adam's usual common sense. "I should just take this time to run... run far, far away from all of this. Nobody will come searching for me. Nobody will assign me with bogus, pointless missions. I'll be a coward, but at least I won't be so pursued. So hated by everyone. It's all gotten to big for me, Adam. I don't know what I'm doing or who's my enemy anymore."  
  
At this point, I slumped over, fell to the ground and nearly started to cry. I was feeling as if I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with everything to lose and nothing to gain, and nobody on my side. But then Adam spoke up with something I'll always remember as long as I live...  
  
"Lady, who cares what they think right now. Don't let them tell you your wrong - they've been telling you things that weren't true all your life! They never believed you were a woman, but you are one, a beautiful woman I might add. They never believed you could stand a chance against Mother Brain when they sent you to Planet Zebes for the second time. You're still kicking, aren't you, lady? And they never believed you would disobey orders you thought to be immoral. And not only did you disobey orders, you threw a space station into a whole god damn planet and blew those bastards to all to hell! Maybe we'll die without anybody ever knowing how much we sacrificed to save them from obliteration and total war against the universes greatest foe. But I've already died once, lady. I've died once for this cause and I don't regret it at all. I never told you this before, but I had children when I was alive. Three beautiful girls. I wanted to go back home, lady. And I knew what I was doing would for sure get me killed. So why did I even try? Because if I didn't, my girls wouldn't ever live to see freedom, or the day they have children of their own. Let's not do this for what the Federation thinks. Let's do this for the good people out there. You have to try, even though if it means failing several times along the way. Eventually, they will understand, lady."  
  
With Adam's speech, I suddenly felt way better about what I was doing. I was still a little at odds with myself, but at least I had the courage to continue the mission. I paused for a moment to reflect on the common sense Adam had driven into my brain.  
  
"So, what do you want me to do?" I inquired, with a hint of eagerness to embark on my objective to come.  
  
"Well, first, get to that map station and upload the layout of the station. I've already taken the liberty to locking down the entire area to make sure no pirates prematurely enter the utilities sector. Somewhere within that sector, there is a Charge Beam augmentation to add to your suit. After you recieve that, you should be able to successfully fight pirates, so report back to the NaviCom and I'll unlock your location. And keep on the look out for reserve tanks, energy tanks, etc. They will help you in ways you can't imagine. Any objections, lady?"  
  
"No."  
  
But before I even answered, he disappeared from the NaviCom screen. He knew I was going to agree, but he didn't have to be that arrogent about it. I guess that old test of friendship didn't hold up when he knew he was right. Heh. 


	4. Into the Unknown

After uploading a series of maps from the map station, I embarked on yet another exploration mission into the unknown. It reminded me of my exploration missions on my other exploits, such as the ones on Planet Zebes and Tallon IV. Although Adam and others would probably disagree, I'd have to say in retrospect, boredom was my biggest foe. Though my job required a lot of spunk and energy, that spunk and energy was only used during the few times I'd actually get into a fight. Usually, my time was spent killing everything in a room, which, in worst case scenarios, took about five minutes, and the next half an hour was spent on searching for weapons and suit upgrades in order to further my chances of survival. It was a very lonely and claustrophobic feeling being cast into the pits of Hell to fend for my own. Even though I explored the dark recesses of the nightmares of civilization, the ultimate irony of it was that I felt bored. As if there was anything more exciting than being the first human to step into Hell...  
  
The ChozoTech Research station wasn't anything close to being Hell, though. It had all the signs of being a building constructed by a civilized species. It was like exploring inside a large-scale version of a shopping center. Like shopping, in a way. Unlike most females, though, I hated shopping. I was always more of a tomboy. So the feeling of being inside a massive and never-ending shopping center took me to the end of my wits at times. But I avoided going completely insane by thinking. Just thinking about nothing, really. Except this time, I was thinking about the Space Pirates. Mainly, about Ridley.  
  
As I went from room to room trying to find some sort of hidden storage area that could supply me with something of use, I thought about Ridley. My history with Ridley stretches all the way back to the humble beginnings of my career, and even to the ancient guardians whom raised me, the Chozo race. Although we shared a heated rivalry, it was during this adventure on Forsythe where I began to think more critically about Ridley and his place within the universe. Me and Ridley had never been more than rivals, and although I have known him and fought against him since the humble beginnings of my career, I never really knew him to be more than a villainous, treacherous, ruthless scourge of civilization. But there had to be more to him than just being a warrior. If the pirates bothered to save his mind, he must have been highly intelligent. A highly intelligent creature has other ambitions other than just serving for the pack.  
  
It was during my initial search through the utilities sector that I began to think there was something more to Ridley. He was smart enough that he didn't need to work for the pirates if he chose not too. Maybe he just got to that point in his life where he needed to choose a path and then, like so many others, chose the wrong path. Maybe he was like me, where he was forced into serving in this never-ending war. Maybe I am wrong all together about Ridley - maybe he really is nothing more than a creature that works without relent to further the cause of evil, with no frailties and no emotions other than hate. All I knew was that I had dangerous exchanges with Ridley which took both of us physically to the brink, and I never really knew what he was fighting for.   
  
Then I needed to completely wipe out his mind, and I had no idea how I was going to go about doing that.   
  
At the time, all I could hope to find out was who was behind ressurecting Ridley in the first place. There had to be an insider. A survivor from my second assault of Planet Zebes. Somebody who decided to ressurect Ridley in a new form. But mystery at the time was who could have had the power to re-organize the pirates back into the omniscent terror they once were? After the major influences and leaders within the pirates were all destroyed, I thought that the pirate network was, for the most part, detached from control or order. It had seized to be one powerful force, and had seperated into thousands of different principalities. In the years between the Planet Zebes incident and the X parasite incident, I had taken advantage of this disorganization of the pirates and managed to destroy any threat the pirates still held.   
  
But they had re-organized again through the guiding hand of Ridley. And the question dominating my thoughts at the time - who brought Ridley back? He couldn't have brought himself back, and the manpower necessary to construct that new body of his certainly wasn't available. 99% of known living pirates were in jail or awaiting trial at the time. It had to be someone I missed. One of his cronies that took over after he and Mother Brain perished with everyone else on Planet Zebes. With a great deal of pirates escaped from prison, Ridley and the gang was back, using the iscolated and forgotten planet of Forsythe as a savehaven. They were preparing to deliver an attack to galactic civilization which would thrust them back into public life dramatically. And I needed to stop that from happening.   
  
Finally, after searching for what seemed eons, I had found a supply room. All about the room were various crates of missiles and orbs of energy. In the center of the room stood a giant Chozo statue with it's arms extended, with a missile launcher floating in it's clutches. I paced up to the statue, with a solemn tone in my stride, and then lifted it slowly off the Chozo's hands and then applied it to my suit. It worked like a charm, and out of a mark of respect, I knelt before the statue and offered it a prayer of thanks. But as I was kneeling, I saw a small cracked orifice at the foot of the statue which was just the right size for me to fit through in ball mode. Curious, I shot the circular covering with a missile and sure enough, it crumbled to reveal a small entrance which could only be entered through ball mode. After again offering the statue a prayer of thanks, I rolled into the entrance. There, I was greeted with a series of pipes that twisted and turned in all sorts of directions until I rolled out below another statue pedistal entrance in another storage room.  
  
It was an exact replica of the previous storage room, only the statue in the middle held what I initially came in search for - the charge beam. I eagerly walked up and yanked the charge beam augmentation from the statue, which upgraded my arm canon greatly. After testing it out against a wall, I learned that this charge beam, just like the missile launcher, was in prestine condition. But after I readily took the beam from the statue, I realized something - the hole in which I had entered had re-sealed itself with an impenetrable metal barring.   
  
I frantically looked around the room, searching for another way out. Then, the eyes of the Chozo statue opened dramatically, bloodshot with fury. The statue's exterior slowly began to morph from stone to flesh. Soon, a thick, green puss glossed it's entire body. I could hear it's repulsive, weezing attempts at breathing for the first time in centuries. Soon, the head of the Chozo began to wilt and crumble forward, it's head now hunched forward staring me down. I knew what I had encountered. It was the same old foe I had encountered on Planet Zebes - a disguised Torizo!   
  
I backed against the wall, extending my gun outwards, warning it to not proceed. But as I held my gun at it's head, ready to fire, it slowly had begun to rise from it's pedistal it had been resting on for nearly a millenium, with the intent to destroy me.  
  
As I began charging up my first shot, it let out it's trademark menacing warcry which pierced through my nerves and made me shoot the beam pre-maturely into it's leg. The shot bounced off the Torizo's leg into the ceiling, causing debries to fall in front of where it stood. As I frantically tried to charge up another shot, the Torizo lifted his head into the air and let out another screeching, irritating warcry, followed by spraying a series of cluster bombs into the air where I stood. I dodged the brunt of the pellets, but many of them smacked up against my back as I rolled out of harms way. I began for the third time to fully charge my beam weapon, but this time, the Torizo responded with sharp gashes at the air around it, driving intense pulse rays into my suit, knocking me to the ground.  
  
Desperately trying to crawl away from it's wrath, it was proving to be a formidable foe, and I came to realize that now was the time to use my newly aquired weapon systems. It stared down at me, glaring, ready to crush me once and for all. I fired several small shots at it's legs, which were swiftly repelled, but as a side affect, caused him to leap backwards in disarray, giving me valuble time. As I switched my gun from charge beam to missile, though, it leaped into the air suddenly and stomped on my back, severely damaging my suit. The low energy alarms began flashing and I knew I didn't have much time before I was to be destroyed by this thing. Taking a moment to calm my nerves, I rolled into ball mode, and quickly maneuvered into an air duct near the floor. The Torizo's talons reached in after me, followed by blowing several charges of it's acid spit into the vent, which narrowly missed me.  
  
I waited for it to remove it's tallons from the vent. As the Torizo slowly began to pull it's hand out of the vent, I remained motionless inside, to try and convince the Torizo that I had somehow died when it shot that load of acid at me. After he fully removed his tallon, I could hear his menacing victory roar, giving me the indication he thought he had killed me. But then, as it began to pace away from the vent I had hid inside, I shot out of the vent in ball mode, rolled imbetween its legs, came out of ball mode and shot a missile square into the back of it's head. Shocked and visibly injured, the Torizo's natural reflexes caused it to turn around, which allowed me to deliver several blows square between the eyes with my remaining four missiles. The shrapnel from the blast temporarily blinded the Torizo, causing him to fall back into a wall roaring in pain, clutching his face with his tallon-like hands.   
  
Now I was on the offensive. I charged up another beam, this time being able to get it to full charge. As the Torizo began to recover from the intense blast, it charged towards me enraged and furious. It threw it's arm at me, clawing for my face, which I swiftly ducked and evaded. Then, it began to raise its head into the air to once again fling acid into my suit. I aimed my fully charged beam at its mouth, and just before it got the chance to fling it's acid cluster bombs, I fired, causing them all to explode pre-maturely in its mouth. With that fatal shot, it's head exploded into flames, and it's corpse slowly slumped onto the floor, evaporating into several orbs of energy and missiles. After collecting all the energy orbs and missiles, two tanks appeared in front of me - an energy tank and a reserve tank! After picking them up, I was up to 200 health with 100 backup health.  
  
With the death of the Torizo hunter, the metal barring evaporated, allowing me to roll back inside the room I was once in. I quickly dashed back to the NaviCom, so Adam could reverse the lockdown and allow me to enter the other areas of the facility. With the missile launcher and the charge beam, I had the weapons necessary to successfully fight the pirates within ChozoTech Research. Little did I know how truly unprepared I really was... 


End file.
